One million servings of Coca Cola products are consumed every minute and other sobering facts about sugary drinks

Public health officials, doctors, teachers, children's health advocates and parents are up against stiff competition to get Americans addicted to liquid sugar to rethink what they drink. Here is an insight into how one soda company, at least, thinks and their goals for your health.

Wendy Clark, Coca Cola's head of integrated marketing and communications, recently spoke at a Digital Conference sponsored by Ad Age. She proudly reported the following stats:

• Coca Cola sells 1.7 billion servings of its products every day which computes to 1 million servings a minute
• Even though it took 124 years years for the company to build to these sales figures, their goal is to double sales to 3 billion servings a day by 2020
• Coke is in 200 countries around the world, more than the United Nations
• Everything -- from the can to the delivery truck -- is an ad for Coke products
• The company's global fleet of vehicles is double the size of FedEx and UPS combined
• The world's most valuable brand knows how to use social media; there are 24 million fans on Coke's FaceBook who are networked to 585 million FaceBook fans
• The world's fourth largest employer has 700,000 "system associates" charged to be ambassadors for the brand; of them 2,700 people work in marketing

Some loud factions scream about the sanctity of preserving personal choice and that everything else -- removing sodas from schools, God forbid introducing a soda tax -- is "nannygate" government.

I believe in personal choice too if the playing field were even. However, when it comes to the sugary drinks, the playing field is drastically lopsided in favor of the soda companies. I think I'll get a glass of water now.

~ Paula 

The Real Final Four

The Final Four is here this weekend, and the country is excited to see who will be in Monday’s national championship game. Whatever happens in the Final Four games, the championship game is going to be a traditional powerhouse (UConn or Kentucky) vs. a lesser-known underdog (VCU or Butler). Believe me, I’ll be watching the games, but there’s another annual tournament filled with traditional powerhouses that I’m even more excited to see the outcome for: The Consumerist Worst Company in America 2011.

It’s down to the Sweet 16, and all the heavy favorites like Walmart, Comcast, Ticketmaster and BP are still in the running. To try and avoid a repeat Worst Company in America title, Comcast has even gone as far as to send out an email to its employees to vote for the other companies. But this year it's anyone’s game. Between the reputation of Bank of America and the oil spills produced by BP, there are some heavy hitters in line for this title.

It will be especially exciting from a PR standpoint to watch how the winning company responds to a Worst Company in America title. Will they acknowledge their downfalls and strive to do better, will they criticize the Consumerist for such a petty ploy to disgrace a company or do they just sit back and act like nothing happened? We’ll find out soon. 

So fill out those brackets and cast your votes, you decide the winner. I’ve got Walmart, Ticketmaster, BP, and AT&T in my Final Four this year, with BP squeezing out a victory over Ticketmaster in the championship. But in the end, we consumers are the losers. With little to no real competition, these companies that we gladly laugh at and call the worst are the one’s laughing all the way to the bank.

-Matt

What To Do When a Tweet Goes Rogue: Two Real-Life Examples

When it comes to communicating professionally using social media, everyone claims to be an expert. But the truth is, we’re all just learning as we go along. It’s always nice to learn the best way to handle a specific social media boo-boo from others who have gone before you. Today’s lesson in social media is brought to us by Chrysler and the American Red Cross. What do you do when a personal tweet including questionable language accidentally gets published to a branded moniker?

Example # 1 – American Red Cross

A few weeks ago, a Red Cross employee mistakenly sent a personal alcohol-related tweet using the @RedCross account instead of her own. Since I know you’re curious, the original tweet stated: “Ryan found two more 4 bottle packs of Dogfish Head’s Midas touch beer . . . when we drink we do it right #gettngslizzerd.” I’m sure Dogfish Head Brewery and Nicki Minaj were excited about the attention, but the Red Cross certainly wasn’t.

The message was deleted and replaced with a new one that said, “We’ve deleted the rogue tweet but rest assured the Red Cross is sober and we’ve confiscated the keys.” The Red Cross employee who posted the initial tweet later used her personal account to explain the mistake resulted from a misuse of HootSuite. The Red Cross handled the situation quickly and with a sense of humor. The incident got some attention, but it actually reflected pretty positively on the Red Cross. I’m sure the employee was reprimanded, but the Red Cross said she won’t be fired over the incident.

As a side note, this offers up another good example of taking advantage of social media opportunities. Dogfish Head Brewery is encouraging fans to donate to the Red Cross and use the hashtag #gettngslizzerd when they do. No word if Nicki Minaj is doing anything similar.


Example # 2 – Chrysler

Just this week another employee sent out an accidental tweet. This time a tweet from a corporate Chrysler account criticized Detroit motorists’ driving skills and included a curse word. Chrysler initially responded with a tweet stating the account had been “comprised” and then followed up with a blog post apologizing for the incident and stating the employee responsible for the errant tweet at the media strategy firm that handles the Twitter account had been fired. Yesterday, Chrysler split with the social media company entirely. They have received a number of comments criticizing them for what is being seen as an overreaction.


So, what can we learn from these two examples?


1. Be very careful if you’re managing personal and professional social media accounts at the same time.


2. Own up to your mistakes honestly. Even though Chrysler didn’t know where the tweet came from, rather than saying the account was “compromised,” they could have simply said, “we don’t know where that came from, but we’re looking into it.” Reflection on crisis communications proves that being coy and dishonest never works out better than sharing as much information as you can, even if it’s not a lot.

3. If people think you’re overreacting, it can really blow a small mistake into a full-blown controversy. Granted, it can be challenging to juggle wanting people to see that you’re taking the situation seriously and still use a little bit of humor to address the issue and move on.

As always, think about the potential ramifications of how you go about handling a crisis, and hopefully these two examples will get everyone thinking about how their brand would handle a “rogue” tweet.

~ Nicole

Tips on How to Conduct a Focus Group

We recently conducted two focus groups in Northern and Southern California to find out how people are looking for information about long-term care. The participants provided a wealth of information with their honest dialogue. But this wouldn’t have happened without the right tone and a good moderator. I thought I would share some quick tips on how to conduct a focus group.

Define Expectations.  As the moderator, this is where you establish the rules. You must inform the participants about the purpose of the focus group, their expected time of participation, what you as the moderator will be discussing and the ground rules, such as cell phones off, talking one at a time and informing them that they are being recorded.  Make sure you get permission from the participants. You can get this verbally but most prefer to have them sign off on a consent form.

Know Your Script. This seems obvious, but it is very important to come in with a plan of action and know what questions to ask, taking into consideration how long participants will have to answer them.  Repeat the questions by restating them, if necessary. Pause and allow the dialogue to flow freely. Ask who, what, where and how. Dig deeper and move the conversation along. Develop a moderator’s guide (or script) to follow, and if there are more things to cover, create a separate questionnaire for participants to fill out before the interview. Rehearse for time consideration and test any presentation such as PowerPoint or Internet connection on location.

Watch for Group Dynamics.  You must encourage participation from everyone. Ask questions directly to those who are not speaking up while looking out for dominating opinions. You need to set the tone for conflicting opinions and create some balance.

Method of Capturing Information.  The reason why you’re conducting a focus group is to find out if a product, service or information is valuable to your audience. It is very important to capture the information you’re collecting. The best way to do so is to record (or tape) the session as well as a have another individual take notes.

The information you have gathered can now be compiled into a report for your organization or your client.

Good luck!

~Muriel

Are We Better Off With a Tax On Soda?

I love soda. There is nothing like hearing the ‘pop’ of a can and then tasting that sweet nectar on your tongue as it flows down your throat. I used to drink two or three cans a day until about ten years ago. Now I drink, on average, perhaps one a week. Sometimes I go weeks without any, and then on a hot weekend I’ll have two or three (or a gallon of unsweetened ice tea).

My point is that while I love soda, I don’t NEED soda. In fact, nobody will deny the fact that there is nothing in soda that is good for you, and eating or drinking any excess sugar is not good for your health. (Soda has been linked to a long list of ailments, including obesity, diabetes, heart disease and osteoporosis to just name a few.)

So, when someone is proposing a soda tax, I have to see it as a good thing, especially if it will encourage people to seek out cheaper, healthier alternatives. While in principle I'm against any unnecessary tax, let’s face it, the government has to raise money to provide all the things we take for granted, like roads, schools, national defense, public services, etc. And we already place high taxes on spirits, beer and wine (of which the latter does have proven health benefits), so why not soda as well?

I know, some people (the soda companies) will scream that a nanny government is taking away one of life’s little pleasures or that somehow soda is an important necessity of life that people have a right to. But nobody is proposing taking away anything - just adding a small tax on sometime nobody needs in the first place and will probably be healthier without anyway. So what’s really wrong with that? Nothing in my mind.


- Ken

SOFAS -- New Dietary Acronym

When it comes to your diet, there’s a new acronym in town – SOFAS. Coined by the U.S.D.A., SOFAs stands for Solid Fats and Added Sugars. The first time I saw this term was in Mark Bittman’s op-ed in The New York Times on February 8, 2011. In his article, Bittman discusses the U.S.D.A.’s recently released Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010, in which Americans are advised to eat “less food and more fresh foods.” However, Bittman took the U.S.D.A. to task because they couched (forgive the pun) their language so as not to offend food processors, many of whom in his opinion provide food that is a far cry from the real thing.

And so, to take the more positive slant on this, we should follow the U.S.D.A’s recommendation to eat less solid fats and added sugars. However, they may need to be a little more explicit in defining SOFAS to help us find this information when we’re peering over food labels. Most of us have seen trans fats on packaging for prepared foods but not solid fats and added sugars.

In any event, there are now two ways in which SOFAs can inspire you to better health. The first is to reduce your consumption of fats and sugars, and the second is to get up off your sofas and engage in some PA – that’s physical activity for those not in the know about that little acronym.

- Sharron

One of my favorite days of the year

 

This has been a good year for Wisconsin football fans. My alma mater went to the Rose Bowl. We don't really need to dwell on how they did. Getting there was a big win.

And, now the world-famous Green Bay Packers are playing (we hope prevailing) during Super Bowl XLV. I doubt my colleagues at BMC have any idea of how much I love Packer football. In fact, I've been a loyal fan since the days of Vince Lombardi. When I announced that I was moving to California, my father bribed me to stay in Milwaukee with a promise of my very own Packer season ticket. Those days people put their tickets in their wills.


The Green Bay Packers have won more championships -- 12 -- than any other team in National Football League history.


Here are some more stats: They won their first three by league standing (1929, 1930 and 1931), and nine since the NFL's playoff system was established in 1933 (1936, 1939, 1944, 1961, 1962, 1965, 1966, 1967 and 1996).


But there have been long gaps between the wins. I wasn't deterred. I vowed to "back the Pack until the Pack came back."  

There is going to be excitement in our home this Sunday. I hate to mention this, but my husband is rooting for the Steelers because he lived in Pittsburgh as a child!

~ Paula Hamilton